Category: Things that might be of interest

We are holding an information session on Doctoral Study at UCL on Wed 1st May 6pm — 8pm.

It is an information session for SLTs and AHPs who are committed to clinical research as part of their career and are considering further study at doctoral level (PhD).

What will I get out of attending?
• Insider information on the NIHR schemes and other funding sources.
• Hints, tips and the realities of applying for funding: an opportunity to hear from SLTs who are currently or have been funded by the NIHR to complete a PhD, and with SLTs who have other PhD funding.
• Information about pre-doctoral study and funding options
• Q&A session: get answers to your questions and practical advice from a panel of PhD students and staff.
• An opportunity to informally network with SLTs who are doing or have recently been awarded a PhD, and with staff with a range of research interests.

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Professor Pirkko Rautakoski from Abo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, will be giving two talks on aphasia. Both events take place in Room G10, Chandler House. These talks are not ticketed, just come along – all welcome!

Mon 24th June 2019, 2pm-5pm

Supporting the activity and participation of people with aphasia at a local level: “Communication Cottages.”

The goal of “consequences-focused approaches” in aphasia rehabilitation is to reduce the impact of aphasia on a person´s life. Aphasia often changes the social life of people with aphasia and reduces it compared to life before the stroke. The contacts with the immediate family most often remain the same but according to many studies, friends are seen less often than before the stroke. It is important to ensure that people with aphasia can regain their social life despite communication difficulties. Interventions to support the activity and participation of people with aphasia are needed.

The Finnish Brain Association (FBA) has carried out a project called “Communication Cottages”. The goal of this project is to reduce the social isolation people with aphasia often experience and to increase their possibilities for participation. “Communication Cottages” provide group activities for people with aphasia. The development of these activities began in 2006-2009 with five “Communication Cottage” groups and now there are already 42 groups in different municipalities in Finland, 36 for Finnish speaking people and 6 for Swedish speaking people. The groups are hosted by adult education centers at a local level in municipalities. These centers offer different kinds of courses for adult residents, ranging from language courses to woodwork, and now also “Communication cottage” activities for people with aphasia. The model and the activities of “Communication cottages” will be introduced in more detail in the presentation.

Tues 25th June 2019, 10am-1pm

Learning from communication partner training for aphasia in Finland.

It has been agreed that instead of regarding aphasia only as a language disorder it should be considered as an inclusive interaction problem on an individual level. The communication difficulties of people with aphasia change their everyday interactions with other people. They are not such active partners in conversations, and general participation in social interaction is reduced when compared to before the stroke. It is a common phenomenon that conversation with a person with aphasia includes non-verbal communication, as well as long repair sequences. The role of the non-aphasic communication partner in constructing these kinds of conversation is important. It has been noticed that many communication partners do not naturally find ways to support the communication of the person with aphasia, and they need guidance in their new role. On the other hand, conversation is a collaboration between two or more people. People with severe aphasia also need new methods to express themselves and guidance to begin to use them. These observations are starting points for different interventions where couples and communication partners receive guidance on how to strengthen their successful communication strategies, how to avoid less successful ones, and how the communication partner can facilitate and support the communication of his or her aphasic partner.

An intensive and mutual communication therapy for a couple with a partner with severe aphasia, called APPUTE, has been developed in Finland by speech and language therapist Arja Nykänen (Nykänen et al., 2013). The aim of the APPUTE method is to practise functional communication strategies using a structured programme under the close guidance of a speech and language therapist. Both the people with aphasia and their partners participate in the intervention and are active parties in the communication. They practise ﬁnding functional communication strategies to convey both everyday messages and more complicated ones. Both are also responsible for the situation and have their own roles in the success of the communication. The training programme consists of three different types of communication tasks arranged according to the level of difﬁculty. The aim of the presentation is to introduce the APPUTE method in more detail and report on its effectiveness.

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We know how hectic your working life is. Caseloads and waiting lists are often hefty and weigh on our minds from dawn to dusk. We know you want resources that are quick and accessible, and yet evidence based and effective. Better Conversations with Aphasia aims to be such a resource. But is it really that helpful to you? What bits of it do you actually use? Has it changed your practice? What bits could be improved? What are the barriers to you using it more regularly?

We want to evaluate the impact of BCA on the clinical practice of SLTs. If we know what works we can make more of it, and if we know what needs changing we can make sure we do that too.

At this session you can find out about the funding scheme for AHPs working in the NHS and schools – HEE/NIHR Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship, which funds you to take our MRes (or to design your own bespoke training if you already have a research masters) and have time to write a PhD application. Hear what UCL has to offer as a host organisation, speak to some of our four successful SLT awardees from 2018, get advice on convincing your manager to support you, and also develop your research ideas.

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Do you work with people with aphasia in the first 4 months after stroke? SLT Bev Snowden is studying for a masters at Marjon in Plymouth and she needs your help. Her research will investigate what CPT clinicians are using in the UK during the first 4 months post-stroke. It is also anticipated that the challenges and facilitating elements to providing CPT during this period will be uncovered. It is an area of research that hasn’t received much attention, so it is hoped that the information gathered will be of benefit to clinicians working with aphasia as well as to people with aphasia and their communication partners.